Method and apparatus for the transmission of a telefax message

Abstract

Method for the transmission of a telefax message. The method is used for transmitting a telefax message from a telefax terminal equipment (TF) at a transmission side to a plurality of telefax terminal equipment (RF1 . . . RFn) at a reception side. The telephone numbers of the telefax terminal equipment (RF1 . . . RFn) are input into an operating unit (KB) of the telefax terminal equipment (TF) of the transmission side and are stored in a data area (COMFIL). Picture elements of the on original telefax message are converted into electrical picture signal elements and are intermediately stored in a further data area (NA) allocated to the first data area (COMFIL). A controller (CC) generates second image signal elements from every telephone number and converts these into, in particular, an original telefax message page format. The second and the first image signal elements are transmitted together to the telefax terminal equipment of the reception side identified by the telephone number.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method for the transmission of a telefax message from a transmission telefax terminal equipment to a plurality of reception telefax terminal equipment, a read means in the transmission telefax terminal equipment reading picture elements of an original of the telefax message in cooperation with a controller and converting the picture elements into first electrical image signal elements, the first electrical image signal elements being intermediately stored in a non-volatile memory in the transmission telefax terminal equipment, comprising the steps of: inputting to the transmission telefax terminal equipment a job instruction;   inputting to the transmission telefax terminal equipment telephone-number-associated data of reception telefax terminal equipment;   converting, by means of the controller in the transmission telefax terminal equipment, the telephone-number-associated data inputted into second electrical image signal elements;   combining the first electrical image signal elements with each of the second electrical image signal elements that correspond to the inputted telephone-number-associated data; and   transmitting by means of the controller each of the combined first and second electrical image signal elements from the transmission telefax terminal equipment to only the reception telefax terminal equipment identified by the telephone-number-associated data;   wherein a respective combined first and second electrical image signal elements forms a message to a respective reception telefax terminal equipment that contains no information with respect to identification of other reception telefax terminal equipment which receive respective combined first and second electrical image signal elements.   
     
     
       2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises converting by means of the controller the second electrical image signal elements into an original telefax message page format. 
     
     
       3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the controller transmits the first and second electrical image signals after the input of telephone-number-associated data, and after receiving a first instruction from the telefax terminal equipment at the reception side and after input of a second instruction to the controller. 
     
     
       4. An apparatus for the transmission of a telefax message from transmission telefax terminal equipment to a plurality of reception telefax terminal equipment, comprising: transmission telefax terminal equipment having means for reading picture elements of an original telefax message and for converting the picture elements into first electrical image signal elements;   the transmission telefax terminal equipment having a controller connected to at least one memory, said memory having at least one data area for storing administration information and another data area for storing the first image signal elements, the one data area for storing administrative information having a first data area for storing at least information regarding a sender of the original telefax message, information regarding addresses, and reference information, and a second data area for storing at least information regarding a scope of the original telefax message and information regarding a number of pages in the original telefax message, the reference information indicating allocation of the second data area to the first data area;   the controller also connected to said means for reading and converting; and   the controller having a program for converting data, that is individually associated with telephone numbers for respective reception telefax terminal equipment, into second electrical image signal elements;   wherein, after at least the input of telephone-number-associated data of the reception telefax terminal equipment, the controller transmits respective first and second image signal elements to reception telefax terminal equipment identified by the telephone-number-associated data.   
     
     
       5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the apparatus further comprises input means for inputting the telephone-number-associated data and for inputting an instruction for initiating transmission of the first and second image signal elements, said input means connected to said controller. 
     
     
       6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the controller transmits the first and second image signals after the input of telephone-number-associated data, and after receiving a first instruction from the telefax terminal equipment at the reception side and after input of a second instruction to the controller. 
     
     
       7. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the second data area has sub-areas individually associated to the pages of the original telefax message. 
     
     
       8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein each sub-area of the sub-areas of the second data area stores at least an address for the beginning of a respective page of the original telefax message and an address for an end of the respective page of the original telefax message. 
     
     
       9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein each sub-area further stores status information associated with each page of the original telefax message that indicates whether or not the respective page of the original telefax message has been transmitted.